The Horrible Story of My Hogwarts Transfer
by Redraven22
Summary: Nichole Brooks was once a happy witch, who attended Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the US. Now, in her 7th year, her family decides to move to England which means Nichole has to transfer to Hogwarts. There she becomes best friends with James S. Potter and Fred Weasley. However she might just kill a certain annoying Benjamin Wood, no matter who his father might be.
1. The letter that changed my life

My story starts early August, where I was barricaded up in the tallest tower of our four story home. I was writing a Lunar Love potion report for my summer assignment in Potions, one of my favorite classes. It had to be precisely 3 feet of parchment, no more, no less. I had nearly one more foot to go, my silver feathered pen digging so hard into the parchment, that I was sure to leave marks on my brand-new, fairywood desk. I was just about done explaining the properties of this specific love potion. I didn't mind writing about this particular area of potions at all. In fact, I was thrilled to find out Professor Pinnicle, our potions professor, had assigned us summer work to research potions that were activated by the moon, my potion being no exception to the rules. Holding true to its name, the lunar love potion could only be used during a lunar eclipse, which is why it's rarely used and usually ineffective. However it was one of the oldest love potions ever created, about nine hundred or so years old.

As I was nearly done, my elbow bumped against my crystal glass ink jar, and multicolored enchanted ink spilled across my light blue fairywood desk. "Oh, trollskins!" I muttered under my breath.

"Nichole Alicia Brooks!" My mother shouted three floors below me. I had forgotten about the Curse-word charm my mother had placed on our home long ago, when I was about 12 years old. I was a second year at Ilvermorny, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and I had learned my first curse word. My mother took immediate precautionary measures and cast a spell on our home to ensure she knew when her kids cursed in order to scold them later.

Sure enough, a middle aged, thin witch appeared in my bedroom, with dark brown hair cut just below her ears. My mother.

"What did you do this time?" My mother sighed as her eyes searched my room for the mess I probably made. She's my mom, so she knows that I'm a natural born klutz, because once upon a time she was too. Her eyes squeezed shut as she winced, seeing the ink spill on the brand new desk I had gotten for my birthday. When her eyes closed, I could clearly see the thin, light scar that ran across her olive-skinned face. When I was little, she told me it was just a special birth mark. But I know better now. She got that scar from a werewolf fight thirty years ago, back when she was still an Auror for the Magical Congress.

My mother took out her long oak wood wand and soon the multicolored ink swirled back into its original container, and my desk was good as new.

"Try to be more careful next time sweetheart," my mother smiled as she poofed back downstairs into the kitchen.

"Thanks!" I hollered back into the cloud of smoke she left once she disappeared.

I sat down on my queen sized bed. Its bed spread was an enchanted picture of the beach. Waves rolled up and down the comforter, and sometimes the picture of the ocean would shift scenery, showing some ocean life and the occasional mermaid. I had a seashell head board that changed different colors, and sea themed fluffy pillows that covered my bed. Above the shell head board there was a huge poster of The Madrid Mermaids, my all-time favorite Quidditch team. They were the best in Spain, and an all-girls team.

On one side of my room stood a very large, magical book shelf. The books would change depending on what I needed at the time. Right now, all the books had something to do with love potions, as I was currently writing an essay on one. I glanced beside the bookshelf over at my fairywood desk. My brother had given it to me in March this year as a birthday gift, I had just turned 17. It had a drawer for every purpose, and the drawers would shift around every so often. Above my desk was a huge poster of the weird sisters. My all-time favorite wizard band. Although there music is out of style today, I still love it. I'm the biggest fan of classic rock.

On the other side of the room, my pet miniature Phoenix, Fireball, squeaked and rasped its claws on my window, asking to be let in. He had a blue enveloped tied to its feet, and I immediately knew who the letter was from. I quickly ran to the window and let in my feathered friend. He dropped the letter at my desk, and I sat down and began to read the letter from my long distance friend, who attends a wizarding school in Brazil called Castelbruxo. My mom said it would be a good idea to have a Pen Pal, in order to experience what life was like in another school such as mine. She suggested writing to her friend's daughter, Isabella. My mom and her mom had both attended Castelbruxo when they were kids, and they both agreed that their daughters would have no trouble getting along. Me and Isabella have been writing letters since I was a first year at Ilvermorny.

Dear Nicky,

I have some very strange news. First I would love to share with you my adventures from my sixth year at Castelbruxo, unfortunately that will have to wait. (Although I will tell you that I had the honor of becoming a Prefect). I will be able to finally tell you of my adventures in person, as I am traveling by port-key to your home in southern Pennsylvania. It's one of my many stops before I finally move to Edinburgh Scotland. My father got transferred there to oversee the transportation of 150 Scottish Red Back Dragons to Romania. Unfortunately this means that I have to move schools. Even in my Seventh year! I am extremely saddened by this, especially since I heard Hogwarts was the snootiest of all Wizarding schools. I truly hope those rumors are false, however the sinking feeling in my gut says otherwise. See you in two weeks!

Bella Perez Ronaldo Lopez of the Southern aisle

I placed the letter in a small purple box. I kept nearly all the letters that Bella sends me, in case I forget some odd detail of her life. Also, I love reading about the strange school located in the Amazons. I keep every detail and sometimes read the letters about Castelbruxo to my younger brother Ethan.

Ethan is six years younger than me. Which means this next week he'll be turning 11 years old. A huge deal in the wizard community, because this school year he will be attending Ilvermorny for the first time. I've already been telling him stories about the best wizarding school in the world, and the four houses he can be sorted into.

There's the Horned Serpent house, (the smartest bunch of the group), the Wampus house (known for the strongest, most athletic wizards), and the Pukwudgie House (known for kind wizards best in healing).

Of course the only house my brother was interested in joining was the Thunderbirds, the best house at Ilvermorny, my house. Thunderbirds are large bird-like creatures that create storms in their wake. The wizarding house is most likely to produce adventurous wizards, which was why it was the best in my opinion. I've been telling Ethan tails of Ilvermorny ever since my first year there, and he had been more excited than ever to finally go to school this year.

I opened on of the numerous drawers in my desk and pulled out some purple parchment. I always wrote in purple to Bella, because purple was her favorite color. I picked up a jar of my favorite, Golden Glitter ink, and began writing back to my friend.

Dear Bella,

I am sad that you are moving, but I am sure you will send wonderful letters of your new adventures in Hogwarts. It won't be all bad, believe me. My dad went to Hogwarts, and he isn't snooty at all (or at least I think so). I can't wait to see you in person again! The last time I saw you was probably third year. We can finally go shopping together like we always wanted too.

See you very soon!

Nicky Brooks

I folded up the purple parchment and placed it in a lavender envelope. Fireball spread his wings and snatched the envelope up in his claws. He loves delivering letters to Bella, mostly because he loves flying over the Amazon rain forest, where wild birds of his kind live and fly.

But as soon as I opened the window to let my Phoenix out, Fireball collided with a common brown owl. With a fluster of feathers and claws, the mess finally cleared and Fireball quickly perched back on my shoulder as he carefully observed our newest guest.

The brown owl cocked its head to the side and let out a small hoot. Then, it turned its head slowly to face me, its large brown eyes seemed to be peering into my soul. I shuffled nervously. Wondering which wizard's owl this was. Certainly no one I knew at Ilvermorny owned a common brown owl. I mean, there were a few kids that owned one, but none of them sent me letters. Most of my friends owned parrots or eagles, very few people owned owls at my school. And I was the only witch who had a Phoenix deliver letters for me.

The small brown owl let out yet another hoot, then flew straight for my head. I ducked, and the owl dropped a small cream envelope on my desk. I turned to face the owl as it excitedly flew in a fury of feathers and disappeared out my open window.

I crinkled my dark brown eyebrows in confusion. The envelope had a dark red wax seal binding it shut. I squinted my eyes and studied the seal that was embedded in the wax more closely. I had seen the seal before, in my father's mansion in the outskirts of Devon England. And again on multiple pieces of parchment belonging to my older brother Thomas.

It was the Hogwarts seal, I realized. I ripped open the letter in confusion. They probably had meant to send this letter to Thomas, who had graduated two years ago. They probably were just informing him of some reunion being held in a couple of years for all the graduating students or something. Yet when I opened the letter, it certainly wasn't for Thomas.

Hogwarts School

of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmistress: Minerva McGonagall

Dear Ms. Brooks

We have thoroughly reviewed your letter requesting transfer, and due to your highly praised family history and academic record, we are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September. We await your response no later than next week, 20 August.

Yours sincerely,

Headmaster McGonagall

My stomach dropped and my heart beat fast inside my chest. What letter of transfer? I didn't remember sending one at all and I certainly didn't want to transfer schools. _It's obviously some sort of mistake!_ _There's no way this letter was meant for me._

I walked around my plush white carpet and paced around my room. I stopped suddenly and took a deep breath, leaning my head back and peering at my ceiling. My ceiling was a reflection of the sky, so it told me what time it was when I glanced up to find the sky to contain the beautiful colors of the sunset. It was around 6:00 pm which meant I could discuss this around dinner.

However I was anxious and ever so impatient that I had to find my mom right away. I ran over to my teal blue door. It had a small Madrid Mermaid mascot décor on my side of the door. The Madrid mermaid was a fierce looking woman with dark black hair and brown skin. She was wearing a chest plate similar to that of a gladiator's and had a mermaid tail made of gold. She held a spear in one hand and a wide, circular shield in the other. On the shield were five gemstones that popped out of my door. I had enchanted the stones in such a way so that depending on the order in which I pressed them, it would unlock my door. Things like this came in handy when your 11 year old brother tried to sneak into your room. Although it was pretty useless on the rest of the family, who had already learned how to apparate wherever they wanted to.

I pressed the emerald gem stone so that it sunk into the door. Next the ruby, then the amethyst, and finally, the aquamarine. The diamond in the center of the shield was solely there in order to confuse my brother even more, so that he wouldn't guess the password.

The mermaids blue eyes glowed, and my door swung open to reveal Dagger, eagerly waiting by my door, wagging his forked tail. Dagger is the name of our five year old, golden crup. A crup is like a dog, accept it has a forked tail and sometimes magical properties. Lots of wizards that live among No-Majes (non magical people) have to use a painless Severing Charm in order to cut the unusual tail so that the crup can blend in. But thankfully, we live in a tightly closed magical community in southern Pennsylvania, so we don't have to cut his tail.

To most No-Majes, our town is just a bunch of useless stinky farm land that an Amish community runs. But in the magic community, it's a small wizarding town consisting of about three neighborhoods and a local shopping center. A lot of wealthy wizard families live here, consisting of ancient Native American wizard families, and pure bloods. And on the other side of the town lives a lot of new-money wizards and half-bloods.

Needless to say, when I take Dagger for a walk around the neighborhood, he doesn't attract so much as a stare. (That is unless he starts barking at Mrs. Crumples' old black cat across the street).

I scooped up Dagger and carried him across the hall. The great thing about Dagger was that he was a golden crup breed. His appearance was similar to that of a golden retriever's, yet smaller in size. Plus, he glowed in the dark, which meant I could use his light across the hallway without needing to cast a lighting spell to light the floating candles (he also functioned as a great No-Maj nightlight).

I came to the end of the third floor which held my mother's room as well as Ethan's. I knocked on the dark oak wood door and it slowly creaked open. The room was barren and empty, which meant my mother wasn't in it. Her room was bewitched to only reveal itself to its owner. Meaning that if my mom walked into the room just now, it would spring to life with her furniture and belongings. This was because my older brother Thomas tried to swipe some floo powder from my mother's room when he was younger.

I put Dagger back on the floor and decided to visit my brother's room instead. I walked to the end of the hall and opened the leafy doorway and stepped inside. My brother's room was a jungle. Literally.

I walked along the forest floor and came to the base of an extraordinary large Brazilian tree trunk and gazed up. There was an extremely large, two story tree house atop its branches in which my brother lived in. I could use a quick revealing charm to conjure up the ladder my brother uses to cling the tree. However I didn't have my wand so I had to think of another way up. I walked around the back entrance of the tree house, where there was a long water slide coming out of the tree house' back door. I winced and began to attempt to climb up the water slide, but it was no use. Every time I managed to make it half way up, I would fall flat on my face and end up soaking wet.

"Ay! _Mi hija!"_ My mom called down from Ethan's tree house. She and Ethan peered their heads out the window with goofy smiles on their faces. I squinted my eyes and studied Ethan's face more closely. It looked a bit tear stained, and his smile looked a bit strained. I thought it strange that he looked the slightest bit sad, because he had been filled with excitement all summer due to the fact he was to start school at Ilvermorny.

"Why don't you just Apparate up here honey?" My mother called down, her and Ethan giggling at my moment's stupidity. I rolled my eyes, but mostly at myself for not thinking more clearly. Soon enough, I squeezed my eyes shut, and when I opened them, I was on the first floor of my brother's tree house. I sat down on the couch and stared blankly at the Puddlemore United poster that hung on the wall, and watched a painting of a Common welsh green dragon fly around. My mother and Ethan walked down the spiral stair case and sat on the bean bag chairs around Ethan's No-Maj gaming systems.

"What's up Nicky?" My mom casually said, right after she performed a heating charm to dry my clothes that were wet from the water slide. But I had a feeling she already knew.

"I was writing to Bella today," I said, "and she told me she was going to Hogwarts for her seventh year. And then in the mail today I got a letter saying that I was transferring to Hogwarts, which I know is a mistake but—"

"Oh it's not a mistake Nicky," she said smiling. "We're moving to England!"

And as soon as those words left my mother's mouth, my heart stopped and my brother's tears started flowing again.


	2. Fred Weasley the seccond

My brother is a peculiar wizard. Or at least that's what our neighbors, the Gregors, say. They have a son around my brother's age named Jason. And because they're neighbors, Ethan and Jason hang out a lot. My brother has been over to their house a few times, and I've caught Mrs. Gregors gossiping to our other neighbor, Mrs. Crumples, about his strangeness.

This is partly because of my brother's newest obsession with No-Maj things such as Televisions, electricity, and video games. He likes to upgrade them by bewitching them to do cool things.

Part of his obsession with No-Majes is based on the fact my mother comes from a No-Maj family. She was born a witch in a non-magical family in Costa Rica, where she attended Castelbruxo growing up. After she graduated, her family moved to The United States because of her father's new job. My mom decided to work as an Auror for the Magical Congress of the United States. That's where she met my Aunt Tristen, my father's sister. She moved to the States from England to work as an Auror with my mom and soon they became best friends. That's how she met my dad.

Anyway, whenever we stay with our No-Maj cousins on mom's side of the family, they always show Ethan the latest technology in the Non-Maj world.

After eating dinner tonight in complete and utter silence, I decided to follow Ethan up to his room to make sure he was okay. I climbed up the ladder to his tree house and followed him into his Necessity room. A room on the bottom level of his tree house that changes depending on what he needs at that time. Usually it's the bathroom, but today it was his potion room. I watched as he got a cauldron ready and mindlessly started putting together a complicated potion.

My brother was the most advanced wizard in potions I had ever met. He was only 11 and could probably create a poly juice potion with his eyes closed. It was one of his unusual talents, though I suspect my mom must have taught him some tricks, because she excelled in potions as well.

"So…." I drifted, not really knowing what I was supposed to say. So I started off with an easy question. "What are you making?" I asked.

Ethan shrugged. As he went to go grab a bottle labeled _danger_ he opened his mouth to speak. "I'm happy that mom and dad are back together." He said, stirring the potion, which now started to take a dark purple shade.

"I'm not." I said bluntly. I was furious that my mom hadn't told me until now. My parents got divorced when I was six. My mother stayed in America with Ethan and me, and my father moved back to England with Thomas, where he attended Hogwarts for the next seven years.

Apparently my mother and father had been seeing each other again for two years, and finally decided to make up. This meant goodbye Ilvermorny, and hello Snobwarts (that's what we called Hogwarts).

This also meant that our lives would be messed up. I wouldn't be able to finish seventh year with all my friends. And Ethan wouldn't get to go to his dream school.

"I'm not mad," Ethan said after a long time. "I heard from Jason that Hogwarts is actually pretty cool." He added some filly weed to the mixture, turning it dark green. "Plus, that's where Harry Potter went!" He beamed. "And I hear that Griffee-door is cool house." He said a-matter-of-factly.

I frowned. "You mean Gryffindor?" I asked. Ethan nodded excitedly. "That's the house Thomas was sorted into, right?" He asked.

"Yeah….." I said, narrowing my eyes and watching Ethan's pet Bowtruckle, a small twig-like creature with leaves growing on it, hand him a small stone. Ethan took the stone and placed that in the boiling mixture as well.

I returned to my room and slumped on the bed. I was a little bit irritated that my brother was taking this better than usual. He was crying a few hours ago, but now he seemed perfectly fine with the idea of traveling across the ocean to go live in a new country and meet completely new people. I for one did not want to start over. I would beg my mom to stay and finish the semester off here, or else I would run away trying.

Although my friend Bella came to mind a couple times. She was upset she was moving too, yet she was doing it. She seemed okay. And if I went to Hogwarts, I wouldn't be the only transfer student. Along with that, I would already have a friend to live through it with me. Maybe moving wasn't a bad idea after all.

I crawled into my queen sized bed and tossed most of my pillows on the ground. Then, I reached over towards my night stand and picked up my 13 inch white Applewood wand, and started practicing summoning charms on the various pillows I had tossed on the floor.

After one of my pillows accidentally collided with Dagger, I decided to give it a rest. I twirled my wand in my hand and admired it. At Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, after you are sorted into your respective house, you then are chosen by your wand.

I was a bit uneasy to find out that a wand with a dragon heartstring core had chosen me, because personally I had my mind set on unicorn hair. The rumors about dark wizards only having dragon heartstring cores didn't settle my nerves either. However now I am thankful, because it is rumored that my heartstring core paired with Applewood makes for a very powerful wand. Plus, my charms teacher said that my wand's core came from an Antipodean Opal eye, one of the coolest dragons, whose shimmering multicolored scales distract most wizards.

Thinking of my old school and my old life had made me a bit depressed as well as extremely exhausted. I placed my bendy wand back on my nightstand and tried to get some sleep, hoping that time would slow down, and I would get a chance to stay in Pennsylvania for a little bit longer.

Unfortunately, time has always been my enemy, and my last and final week living in the States had flown by in the blink of an eye. It had certainly felt like time had sped up, and now I stood by my brother on moving day, while my mom gave us each two medium sized suit cases (that I doubt would fit everything I owned, let alone any of my books).

However, moving turned out to be a breeze. Well, not quite, but it was less heart breaking than I imagined. Mom used her compacting charm to pack my room into the suitcase. And when I say my _room_ I mean my literal room. We packed up rooms of the house, and each carried two suitcases. We only brought six rooms with us, but one of those also included Dagger's room as well.

When we arrived in the outskirts of Devon England, I felt like I was 12 again. That was the last time I stayed in this house with my father, and Thomas. When I was that young, the house looked like a castle in my eyes. Now I'm 17, and it still looks pretty huge.

My father's house looked remotely similar to the other houses in the neighborhood. Each house was about four or five stories tall, and very wide, each a different shade of white or grey. My dad's house was a creamy shade of eggshell.

As I approached the wide red front door, I paused to knock but I had forgotten the glowing silver door knob was enchanted to unlock when opened by family members. I reached down and slowly turned the knob, sure enough, it clicked and unlocked for me.

We unpacked our rooms into empty rooms on the fifth floor of my dad's mansion. There were only five, which was for the better. If there had been any more floors I would have gotten lost. I chose a room at the end of the corridor, as far away from my family as possible so I would get a good night's rest. However, neither my brother nor my father was anywhere to be found still, as they were both in Scotland for another week. As to why they were there I had no clue.

I had written a letter and told Bella of our latest move, so she would know where our new address is. She would come by next week and stay with us until the school year started. I was so excited to finally see her after so long. And I was lucky I had someone to go shopping with other than my older brother Thomas who I hadn't seen in ages and had a rocky relationship with.

The magical community we lived in was home to more wizard families than my old town. It had a couple more small shopping centers and market places, and was home to a mixture of different wizarding families.

Apparently some of the infamous Weasleys lived nearby. The Weasley's were most known for having one of the largest wizarding families in a long time. The original seven Weasley children had a couple children of their own, which meant even more Weasley wizards.

Other than the fact those wizards multiplied like rabbits, I didn't know anything else about them. They were the only wizards I knew in England, and that was solely because Thomas had told me stories of how many Weasley kids he thought there were.

We had two neighbors, of whom I hadn't met yet because it appeared to me that no one was home in either of the two houses.

I peered out my window to check and see if the neighbors had returned, but I was unsuccessful in spotting anyone in the large empty houses. Instead, I saw a tall, double decker bus seemingly appear out of thin air.

I did a double take and inwardly flinched. Squinting my eyes, I read the side of the bus as a girl exited the front door with two green suitcases. It red in bright blue letters: _The Knight Bus_

And then, just as quickly as it had appeared, it zoomed off at the speed of light, like it was never there in the first place.

I heard a knock on the door from five flights of stairs below. This was because most wizard's doors were made to magically amplify the sound of another wizards knock so it can be heard throughout the house. The knock echoed through the quite lit halls of my father's mansion, and I ran down the red carpeted halls to the top of the stair case.

When I put one foot on the stairs however, I almost lost my balance, because they began to move downwards. It was almost similar to No-Maj escalator, except the stairs knew where you wanted to go, so they traveled in that direction. And they traveled a lot faster to say the least. Before I had realized it, I was zooming down the stair case and reached the bottom in no time. I had to steady myself against the railing because of how disoriented and dizzy I was.

I reached the door and yanked it open.

"NICKY!" A girl screamed as the door flew open. I was quickly pulled into a tight hug, and I felt the air in my lungs leaving me as I was squeezed to death.

"B-bel….." I squeaked out in a raspy voice.

"Oops, sorry." She said, pulling out of the hug. "I'm just so happy I'm here! And you won't believe how thrilled I was to find out about your transfer!"

"Yeah. We definitely won't need to write to each other anymore," I said. We both laughed.

Bella took a step back and I took a moment to see how she had changed from the last time I had seen her. She was a couple inches shorter than me, probably around 5'6 which was tall in comparison to a lot of witches at her school. Her jet black hair was cropped around her face in a cute bob, and she was wearing a short black tank top with the words _Star Wars_ printed on it. The shirt was cut in such a way that you could see a bright yellow sun tattoo that contrast nicely against her caramel skin tone.

"Since when did you get a No-Maj tattoo thing?" I asked quizzically. Bella's face lit up in excitement.

"Ooh! It's a good story actually!" She said grabbing her two bright green suit cases. "But it can wait! I totally want to get settled in first."

I helped Bella set her two cases at the base of the stairs, and we rode up towards the fifth floor. I reached the first room with a white door and pulled it open. What I thought was an empty room turned out to be a wide, grassy stable like room with a small forest in the back. It looked like the outdoors, however when I studied the sky I bit more, I could tell it was artificial.

"Is that what I think it is? " Bella said slowly as a white glowing blur emerged from the edge of the forest.

I quickly slammed the door shut. "That was weird. And totally not the guest room." I said slowly.

"Why does your dad have a Unicorn in his house?" Bella asked.

I shook my head. "Honestly I have no idea…" and I didn't. My father was pretty weird, but he wasn't interested in magical creatures of any kind. In fact, he almost exclusively forbid pets, except for the common house owl. And house elves only worked here once a month. But he did allow our pets to stay as long as we kept them in our rooms and far away from his.

The unicorn probably somehow belonged to Thomas, who worked at the ministry of magic as deputy chief of the department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

Bella and I continued down the hall way until we found an empty room with a twin bed in the middle. I offered to help her unpack, but Bella shook her head furiously.

"I can do that later!" She said quickly. "What's most important is that we talk about Hogwarts." She said as she sat down on the twin bed and patted the spot next to her for me to join her. I did.

"What is there to talk about?" I sighed. "It's a school for snooty English snob wizards who think they own the place." I said.

"Well I heard—" she said quietly, leaning closer. "That Harry Potter's kids go there!"

"Well duh." I said standing up and pacing around the room. "Didn't the youngest one almost destroy the fabric of time and kill everyone?" I got up and opened the door, mindlessly wandering out in the halls.

"Well yeah but then everything turned out okay!" She argued, following me back down the stair case. "And hey, who could blame the kid. He had a lot of pressure to live up to."

I rolled my eyes and walked out the back door, out into my father's garden. "Sure." I said sarcastically.

"Plus, that was like two years ago right?" She said. "That was like _so_ 2019." She suddenly stopped and turned me around to face her.

"And, I heard—" she barely whispered, "that the oldest son, James Potter—" she said more slowly. "Is _hot."_

"That is quite true, although I did her the lad is half leprechaun as well." A voice said from behind us. Bella screamed in shock and we both turned around.

A very tall, lanky boy with light brown skin and wavy brown hair sat on a bench at the curb of the street. He looked as he was in deep concentration at reading a book titled: _Peculiar Muggle Habits_

When he realized we were staring, he glanced up from his book and smiled. "At least he's not part goblin," he said simply, then turned the page of his book.

"Wait I'm sorry who are you?" I demanded, crossing my across my chest and shifting my weight to one foot. The boy stood up and shook my hand with a firm grip.

"Fred Weasley the second, at your service." He said formally, with a boyish grin plastered to his face. "I just came out to meet the new neighbors," he said innocently.

"Isabella Perez!" Bella said, jumping out from behind me and shaking Fred's hand abruptly. "We go to Hogwarts."

 _"_ Now _that_ ," Fred said. "I have trouble believing."

"No really!" Bella pleaded. "I'm as serious as a hippogriff!"

"Well I'm not too sure if hippogriffs are quite the serious creatures…" Fred said.

I rolled my eyes. "What she means to say is that we're transfers. Both in our seventh year. Our families had to move and now we're stuck completing seventh year at Hogwarts."

"Well that makes sense." Fred said grinning. "I think I'd remember you two if you were in my classes." He said. "I'm a seventh year as well."

"Oh cool!" Bella said. "So you can be our guide!"

"Woah woah woah!" I said, trying to quickly put an end to this sudden madness. "We don't need a guide." I said, coming out a little harsher than necessary. Fred however didn't seem to mind.

"Oh really?" He said glancing around. "Where is this mysterious guide of yours then?"

"My brother Thomas!" I said. "He went to Hogwarts. In fact he was the captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team." I said, not meaning to brag.

"Thomas is in Scotland right now." Fred said with a smirk. "I know that because he's my neighbor, and we used to be best mates back at Hogwarts before he graduated."

Then he paused looking confused. "You're his little sister?" He asked quizzicality.

"What?" I asked defensively.

"It's just that… you two look nothing alike. No offense or anything-"

"Non taken." I said quickly, before he could go on. It was true. Thomas looked like a younger version of dad. The only thing he inherited from Mom was his naturally tanned, glowing skin. Thomas had Dad's blonde hair and dark brown eyes. He was really tall and in shape.

Me on the other hand looked nothing like dad, and only a little bit like my mom. I had mom's light olive skin, green eyes, and mocha brown hair, and that's where the similarities ended. Where mom's hair ended at just below her ears, my hair kept going, past my shoulders in small waves.

I was also a lot taller than Mom, which I probably got from my dad. And whereas both parents were both the perfect weight and build, I was awkwardly slender.

The only one in the family that looked precisely like me was Ethan. We were basically the boy and girl versions of each other because of our strikingly similar looks. I once went into Phoenix's Flavors, a candy store back at home, and the owner of the store told me my brother was in the store as well, and he didn't know our family at all! That's how similar we look. I kind of hate it sometimes.

"Hellooooooo." Bella said, waving her hand in front of my face. "Earth to Nicky!" She said, the pair of them had wide smiles on their faces. "Fred just offered to show us around! Isn't that neat!"

"I give up…." I said. "Lead the way Fred!" I exclaimed, getting into the swing of things.

We followed Fred back to the mansion next to ours. He held the door open for us as we stepped inside, the halls lighting up as we did so.

"Yeah, the old man is out running his business," Fred said. "But we can use the Floo powder he left me."

"Why don't we just apparate?" Asked Bella. "Everyone here knows how to right?" She said.

"Well… I thought of that. But you both have no idea of how to get there, yeah?" He stated. "And I don't know how to side apparate with three people."

"Get where?" I asked.

"Diagon Alley, of course." Fred said.

"Oh." I said. "Yeah, I think I've been there before." I kind of remembered going several years back. "I just don't know where that is."

"I do!" Squealed Bella. "My dad took me there last week. It's behind the Leaky Cauldron, right?"

"Yeah!" Said Fred. "You think you can apparate there yourself?" He asked. Bella nodded. "Alright then. Nicky, grab onto my arm." When I didn't move right away he added, "Oh come on! I don't bite!"

Laughing, I threw my arm around his and grabbed ahold of his hand, squeezing my eyes shut. We reappeared with a _whoosh_ and suddenly appeared in the middle of a sunlit cobble stone street aligned with shops and wizards.

Fred let go of my hand and turned to face me. "This—" he said, gesturing around him to show the beautifully well decorated shops. "Is Diagon alley!"

He smiled. I smiled back at him. "Ok _Fred_." I said with a hint of tease in my voice. "What does one do in Diagon Alley?"

"Well first I think we should find your friend." He said looking around. He was right. There was no sign of Bella anywhere. Perhaps she had just gotten here earlier and decided to explore some of the shops. Or she had gotten lost or taken a wrong turn. Maybe she didn't actually know where this place was.

Just as I was pondering our options, I saw a dark haired witch wander into a store nearby.

"Come on!" I said, tugging at Fred's black polo. "I think I saw her walk into that store over there!"

Fred grinned from ear to ear. "You mean that store, over there?" He inquired. I nodded.

"That's Weasley's Wizard Wheezes." He said.

"Which relative of yours owns that store?" I said. "I mean, you got like 70 of them right?"

"Me father actually." He said. "George Weasley. And my uncle helps out too."

"Cool." I added, not wanting to ask which uncle. He already had so many.

"Shall we?" he said, motioning towards the door.

"We shall!" I answered in my worst English accent. Fred sighed and rested his face between his hands.

"If we're going to become friends, promise me you'll never do that again". We both erupted with laughter and entered his father's store.

It took a while for my eyes to adjust to all the color, but eventually I found that this was by far the coolest store I had ever seen. There were candies and nick nacks, games and toys, fake wands and gag jokes. It was truly and experience for the eye.

Fred showed me his favorite products. First there was the anti-gravity hat. Fred put it on to show me how it worked, and I nearly left the floor laughing as he certainly did. Next he showed me a portable swamp, which would create a swamp wherever you went. I wasn't sure why you would need one of those, but I thought it was pretty neat.

There was a screaming yo-yo, and a self-writing quill I thought would come in handy for later. And then Fred shared a glass of Otters Fizzy Orange juice with me. It tasted like an orange Soda you'd get at "muggle" restaurants, or so Fred says.

We had finally found Bella in the corner, admiring the love potion section.

"You think if I slipped James potter some of this, that he'd fall in love with me?" She asked jokingly. Fred and I laughed.

"I know right!" Said a high voice. "James Sirius Potter is _so_ H-O-T!"

I glanced beside Bella to find a rather short witch, with wild blonde curls and fairy like features. She flashed her unusually white teeth at me and Fred, then continued talking.

"He certainly is eye candy, but he isn't the main course." She explained. "Benjamin Wood is the hottest guy in school by far, hands down. And his dad is THE Oliver Wood. The famous keeper from Puddlemore united," she continued. "And Benjamin is captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team. Just like his dad." She took a breath before adding, "Now that's a bloke I'd like to shag—"

Whether she was talking about the father or the son, I had no idea, but apparently Fred had heard enough.

"Oi!" He yelled. "Those blokes happen to be my friends if you don't mind!"

"Oh I don't mind." She smiled. "Shagging your friend that is."

Fred inwardly groaned.

"So." The peculiar blonde witch said, turning to us. "Where are you two from? Certainly not from around here based off your voices alone."

"Were transfer students," Bella said, holding out her hand. "I'm Bella."

"I'm Stefany," she said, and then turned to me, expecting my name. I was still speechless from her rant, that I forgot how to form words without being severely freaked out. She shrugged and faced Bella again. "I hope you all join Hufflepuff. It's the best house at Hogwarts."

"More like the weirdest." Fred added, and we both reared out heads back in laughter as Stefany walked away.

"Guys!" Bella scolded. "She was being nice."

"Well yes," said Fred. "But Stefany is always like that. She gone boy bonkers."

Fred, Bella and I confined to shop some more around Diagon Alley, where we went to Flourish and Blotts, Eeylops Owl Emporium, Broomstix, and Amanuensis Quills.

I took my brother the next week, where he was chosen by his first wand. And the remaining two weeks of summer I spent goofing off with Fred and Bella. Maybe Hogwarts wouldn't be that bad after all.


	3. The Troublesome Trio

I sat in a window seat in a small compartment on the Hogwarts train with Fred Weasley and Bella Perez, my two new best friends. I hadn't said a word since I got on the train, because it was moving day and neither my dad nor oldest brother bothered to show up to wish us good luck. I really didn't care so much about me as I did Ethan's feelings, it was his first year of Wizarding School for Pete's sake! They should've had the decency to at least show up.

Although Ethan really wasn't that upset. In fact, he had made friends really rather quickly with this boy named Greggory and another boy named Hugo, who turned out to be related to Fred. (Which didn't surprise me considering how big his family is!)

I had to admit I was really nervous. I really hoped I wouldn't be put into Hufflepuff, because then I'd have to see that weird girl Stefany again, and she kind of scared me honestly. I hate the boy crazy type. I mean, don't get me wrong… I like boys. It's just that I don't feel the need to express my love for them that deeply or crazily.

I secretly hoped I would be sorted into Ravenclaw. I loved the color green, and I liked school (see? Perfect fit). I loved learning and I loved studying. I was quite good at school back at Ilvermorny, where I excelled in most of my classes, and received full marks on all my tests.

I was studying to be an Auror, just like my mom. I have always admired how brave she is, and I hope that one day I can save the world from dark wizards just as she had.

Of course, one might think I was too physically weak to be an Auror. I certainly wasn't muscular. But I am fast. And who needs to be physically strong when what's most important is the strength of your mind and the quickness of your wit. Muscles don't matter if you can't use your wand.

Besides, I happened to know how to use a broomstick. And I mean _really_ use one. Back at my old school, I used to play Seeker for my house's quidditch team. And I was _good._

I felt my heart sink just a little, as I realized I probably wouldn't be able to play quidditch this year. The positions were probably already filled, and no one would let a newbie join the team anyway.

I let out a long, slow sigh.

"What's wrong love?" Fred Weasley asked teasingly, wriggling his eyebrows.

"Just thinking about quidditch…" I said glumly.

"What's the long face for?" He asked suddenly. "If I remember correctly, you're a right good player if I do say so myself. You nearly knocked my arse off my broom!" Fred said, talking about a couple weeks ago when we went a few rounds on our brooms in Fred's backyard.

"I just hope I get to play quidditch is all," I said. "I mean, aren't all the positions filled?"

"Of course not!" Fred said, looping his arm around my shoulder in a friendly gesture. "In fact, a seventh year named Colin Frickle graduated last year from Hogwarts. He was Gryffindor's seeker. That means if you get sorted into my house, we can be quidditch mates!" He explained excitedly.

"Of course you'd have to get through Wood first." Said a boy leaning against the sliding door of the compartment. "Merlin knows that boy breathes quidditch. You'd have to be _reaaal_ good to make his team."

"Oi! Don't scare the new lady friend!" Fred hollered at the sudden stranger.

The boy made direct eye contact with me. He was averagely tall, handsome boy with shaggy brown hair. He seemed to be pretty fit for his age and leaned against the door frame like he owned the place.

"I'm James Potter." He said, holding out his hand. I took it and gave it a shake. "Friend and cousin of Fred Weasley here."

"We became good friends after we realized we were both named after dead people," Fred said, standing up and throwing his arm around James like he did to me a while ago.

"Oh wow Fred," Bella said from the back of the compartment. She had been heavily engrossed in her defense against the dark arts school book for the majority of the ride. "I'm sorry about your loss."

"Don't worry about it," Fred said casually. "He was my Dad's twin brother. I never knew him, but I'm honored to take his name."

James Potter's attention was drawn to Bella immediately.

"And who might you be?" He asked her in a sly manner, devilish grin plastered to his face.

"Bella Perez." She said coolly. "And you?"

"James." He said, shaking her hand. "Are you two transfers?" He asked, looking between me and Bella.

"Yep." We both responded at the same time.

"Yeah, I saw another transfer from Durmstrag institute, but he was like 13." James said. "Let me go get the others so you can meet them!" He quickly said. "Anyone crazy enough to hang out with Fred should meet his other friends," he said slyly.

"What other friends?" Fred hollered as James fled the apartment. "I've only got these two lovely ladies to keep me company," he said wriggling his eyebrows. I playfully hit him on the arm.

Just then, a man who seemed in his 40's knocked gently on the compartment door. He was a very well dressed, tall man with brown hair and a warm smile.

"Ello professor Longbottom!" Fred said cheerfully.

The professor smiled back but cautiously. "Hello Fred. You don't happen to have any canary creams you're hiding up your sleeves are you?" He said with a raised eyebrow.

"Certainly not professor," Fred said sweetly.

"Well then," the man said with a sigh, clapping his hands together. "Maybe you can help me. I'm looking for prefect Nichole Brooks. Have you seen her? She's late for her prefect meeting."

"Oh!" I said, getting up quickly. "I'm Nichole. But there must be some mistake. I was a prefect at my old school and certainly not this one-" I tried to explain, but I was cut off by professor Longbottom.

"Nonsense!" He said. If you're a prefect there, you're a prefect here. In fact, we welcome it!" He said. "If you would follow me into the prefect compartment that would be just splendid!"

I glanced back at Fred and he motioned me forward. "Don't worry, we'll save you a seat, yeah?" He said encouragingly. I hurried forward to follow the professor, where he led me to a bigger room filled with witches and wizards my age. I knew absolutely no one of course and was scared for my life, but then a short witch with bright pink hair and a cool looking ear piercing motioned for me to come sit next to her.

"Hi!" She said smiling. "You must be knew. I'm Eva."

I glanced down and realized she was wearing a Weird Sisters shirt and I absolutely beamed. "I'm Nicky," I said. "And I freaking adore the weird sisters. Their my favorite band besides—"

"The Cauldron Crazies?" She finished for me.

"Yeah!" We both exclaimed at the same time.

"That's just bloody brilliant!" She said. "I've never met another fan my age you know, because of how old that music is."

"I know right!" I said, I was suddenly glad to have found someone with similar interests. "And I love your piercings," I added. "I have several in this ear myself," I whispered, pulling my hair behind me ear so she could see."

"That's so cool!" She said, admiring them. "We have a lot in common Nicky." I nodded.

"Yeah. What house are you in?" I asked.

"Gryffindor," a deep voice said from across me. I looked up and almost choked.

"Look I hate to my interrupt your bonding sesh," the wizard said. "But we have a prefects meeting in a couple minutes, and if I have to listen to you ramble on with that new Yankee friend of yours, I might have to kill myself." He added dully.

My blood absolutely boiled just staring at his smug face. I automatically hated whoever this guy thinks he is. And I hated it even more that he was the hottest boy I had ever seen. Why are all the hot ones such jerks?

"Bugger off, Wood." Eva said, rolling her eyes.

"Make me." He said smugly. "Or better yet, make your new Yankee pal. I'd love to go a row with her," he said smirking in my direction.

"Oh shove off prick—" before I could finish my line of insults I was going to through at this kid, the headmistress, Minerva McGonagall, opened the doors and greeted us with a kind smile.

"Hello exceptional students!" She greeted warmly.

As she began explaining the rules and duties of a prefect, Eva slowly turned to me and whispered,

"He's not usually an annoying bloke,"

"He sure seemed like it to me!" I whispered back sharply.

"I think he's just stressed. He's quidditch captain and he's in charge of tryouts soon. I think he's just a little on edge is all…" she said hastily.

I nodded, not really caring. It's not like I would ever interact with him again. In fact the only time I would ever see him again would be on the quidditch field, as I'm playing for Ravenclaw and kicking his ass at it too.

After the prefects meeting, I said goodbye to Eva and was making my way back to my compartment, when I saw Benjamin Wood following me. As soon as I realized this, I whipped around and glared.

I always thought I was tall, standing about around 5 feet and 8 inches. But boy, Benjamin Wood was probably more than a half a foot taller than me. I stared at his short, wavy brown hair and his blue eyes for maybe longer than I should have, before I remembered why I turned around in the first place. To snap at him.

"What are you doing?" I asked harshly.

"Going to find my friends," he smirked, a barely noticeable Scottish accent to his voice. "What are you doing?"

I huffed and rolled my eyes, quickening my pace in order to get some real good distance between us.

I finally made it to my compartment, where I let out a long irritated sigh and plopped down next to my best friend.

"Prefects meeting really that stressful, huh Nicky?" Fred asked, throwing his arm around my shoulder once again.

"Hardly." I said. "It was just _wrenchingly_ boring."

"Precisely why I'm not a prefect," Fred said proudly.

"Pfft. You're not a prefect because you were born a trouble maker." Bella said from her corner of the room. "I haven't even known you for that long, and even this is basic knowledge."

Fred seemed to take that as a compliment, as he grinned ear from ear. "I for one am very proud of you Bella," he said mischievously. "You met _the_ James Potter and you didn't even flip out."

"Yeah well—" she paused suddenly. "Wait what?" She practicality yelled. "That hottie who walked in here a few minutes ago named James was _the_ James?"

I rolled my eyes and covered my head in my hands. Even I had figured this out, however I guess Bella was too obsessed with her book at the moment.

"I suppose you didn't catch that?" He asked quizzically. She blushed madly.

"Catch what?" _The_ James potter asked as he entered the room once more, followed by Eva.

"Oh nothing mate." Fred said, throwing a wink over in Bella's direction, who had turned about as red as James potter's robes.

"Well anyway, I wanted you two to meet Eva. The only girl that puts up with the lot of us."

I smiled back at Eva. "Hey." I nodded cooly.

"Sup Nicky." She nodded back.

"Oh how brilliant! My lady friends have already been aquatinted!" Fred beamed.

"I'm Bella," Bella said, waving at Eva.

"Eva." She said, sitting down next to her. "Whatcha reading?"

As Bella and Eva discussed the dark arts, I turned to potter. "So what did you mean by the lot of you?" I asked teasingly. "Looks to me like the only guys here are you and Fred."

"They always purposely forget me." Benjamin Wood said, with fake disappointment in his voice, taking the seat next to me without so much as a warning.

"Wood!" Fred exclaimed. "How rude of me. I forgot to introduce you to my two new lady friends. Bella Perez and—"

"Nichole Alicia Brooks. Former seeker for the Firebirds. Responsible for catching the snitch more than 23 times, a record breaker at Ilvermorny school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Joined the team at age 11 and preformed the Phoenix tail faint at age 13." Wood finished for him.

My mouth was probably hanging open right about then, in fact I think it was. "How on earth did you figure that stuff out?" I demanded.

"I asked McGonagall for your file. I wanted to find some dirt on you. But instead I found my new seeker."

"No you didn't." I said angrily. He had no right to go through that file it was extremely personal. "Besides," I said. "I am probably going to be sorted into Ravenclaw anyway. That's what I want at least."

The whole compartment groaned, even Bella.

"Oh come on Nicky!" Eva said. "Gryffindor is the best and you know it!"

"Yeah," Wood whispered beside me. "Besides, you'd get to spend more time with me," he breathed against my ear.

I flinched and rolled my eyes. This was going to be a long year, wasn't it?


	4. Fred Weasley is my twin

**Quick note: Just wanted to say that I think Snape was totally underrated! He and the Weasley twins were my favorite characters when I read this series growing up.**

The chair I was sitting in in Headmistress McGonagall's office was an extremely comfortable bean bag chair, but the comfort level of the chair was not enough to distract my nerves. I felt as if I were a first year again, nervously wondering what house I'd be sorted into.

McGonagall said that if Bella and I didn't want to wait in line with a bunch of first years, and have our fate screamed in front of the entire school, we could meet McGonagall in her office, and wait to use the sorting hat there. So, being the chickens that we so definitely are, Bella and I chose to put on the sorting hat behind closed doors. That of course didn't stop Fred from begging McGonagall to let him watch, but since he wasn't allowed in, she allowed him to wait outside the office for us.

Bella sat in an old oak chair as we waited for McGonagall to return with the sorting hat. She would bring it up to her office as soon as every first year had been sorted. I only hoped that Ethan was sorted into Ravenclaw, and that we could both be in the same house so that I could keep a better eye on him.

As we waited for Headmistress McGonagall, I eyed the long row of paintings of strange wizards and witches. Probably former headmasters of the school I assumed.

I studied the most recent wizards more carefully. The second most recent painting was one of an ancient looking wizard, with kind eyes and a long white beard. When the painting noticed I was staring, he gave me a kind smile and a wink.

The painting next to his was of a younger wizard, with greasy black hair and green robes. When he caught me staring, he flicked his eyes over in my direction and snapped, "Mind your own business, Brooks!"

Of course I was inwardly freaking out that some painting of a dead guy knew my last name, but I didn't have much of a chance to respond as McGonagall burst through the doorway, holding a large sorting hat.

"I think you'll find it interesting to know Nichole," She said, her eyes flickering towards me in the corner of the room, "That your younger brother was just sorted into—"

"Don't tell me!" I said, covering my ears with my hands. Noticing that I had rudely cut the headmistress, I quickly apologized. "Sorry!" I said. "It's just that if I know what house he's in, I'll want to be sorted into that one." I explained.

"Oh. Very well then, Bella you've decided to go first, am I correct?" Bella nodded excitedly in the chair and closed her eyes as the hat was placed over her head.

I heard mumbled whispers and arguing, and soon I heard the loud voice of the hat.

"Better be…GRYFFINDOR!" it shouted.

Bella let out a quick sigh of relief. "Gracias a Dios!" (Thank God). I then heard a feint "yes!" outside the doorway, assuming it was Fred inwardly celebrating.

"Are you ready Nichole?" My new Headmistress asked me. I nodded, shaking as I got up from my bean bag chair in order to sit on the chair that Bella had previously occupied.

I grimaced as she placed the hat over my head. It was really dark and smelled kind of weird.

"Yeah, well, you'd smell weird too if you were placed on everyone's head!" the hat replied back, as it had just read my thoughts. Freaky.

"Let's see here… you have ambition! But you haven't learned to fully use it… Slytherin would only be an _Ok_ match for you…"

That didn't bother me, as I hadn't really expected to be sorted into Slytherin.

"You are a very kind witch!" the hat exclaimed. "Maybe Hufflepuff is right for you?"

NOOOOO! I screamed in my head. Definitely not Hufflepuff!

"Okay, not Hufflepuff it is. That leaves Ravenclaw and Gryffindor!" he said excitedly. "And I know exactly where you belong!"

"You are a very studious witch indeed. I see a bright future ahead of you, as you plan to become and Auror. You will learn and conquer so many things at this school. Your quest for knowledge is very admirable…." He continued.

"Which is why you shall be placed into… GRYFFINDOR!" the hat screamed.

Wait…..what! I felt a surge of emotions all at once. I was confused at first because the hat was talking about my quest for knowledge, and I was almost a hundred percent sure I'd end up in Ravenclaw. Some part of me wished I could redo the test, but I guess the sorting hat has to have a good reason to put me in Gryffindor. I also was a little happy, because I had already made so many new friends from Gryffindor, so at least I wouldn't have to start over.

"If it makes you feel even better," McGonagall said. "Your brother is in Gryffindor as well."

Relief filled my system. I'd be able to look after him after all. I was a little sad that I wasn't put into Ravenclaw, but ultimately I can't wait to see Fred's face when I tell him what house I was sorted into.

"You can't get rid of me that easily!" Fred yelled as soon as McGonagall swung open the door to her office to let us out. McGonagall put her hand to the bridge of her nose and sighed.

"What did I tell you about barging into my office Mr. Weasley?" She asked desperately, as if this had happened before or something.

"Never to do it?" Fred asked as he slowly stepped out. Bella and I followed.

"Precisely." McGonagall said. "Stay out of trouble!"

"Of course," Fred called back over his shoulder. As soon as we left the office, Fred threw his arms over both our shoulders and said, "Who's up for a grand tour?"

The three of us made our way up the winding stair case, past crowds of first years being given tours by prefects. We even passed by this one rather small first year and his pet toad, who tried to leap onto Bella as we passed.

After what felt like three days and a million stairs, Fred finally stopped his tour in front of a huge painting of a rather large lady in a pink dress.

"Alright. We're here!" Fred grinned as he turned toward us.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Bella said. "It's a painting."

"Hungarian Horntail," Fred said rather loudly, facing the painting.

"Of course," the woman said, the portrait swinging open to reveal Gryffindor's common room.

"Oh." Bella said, as she followed us inside.

"Well," Fred sighed happily. "Here we are! Gryffindor's common room," he said, gesturing around the room. It was pretty cozy looking, with a comfy couch in front of the fire, and tables and chairs to do homework on. There were two younger students playing a game of chess in the corner, and a couple of gossiping witches trading secrets by the fire.

"This is where we relax, hang out, and do homework." Fred said.

"It's also where Potter brought one of his conquests during the quidditch after party. They were in that corner over there making out," Eva's heavily Irish accented voice said behind us.

"Oi!" Fred said, "I was gettin' to that part, yeah?"

"Sure yeah were," Eva said rolling her eyes. "It was rather disgusting actually."

"That was fifth year!" Fred argued. "He's a changed man now, that one."

"I wish I was that girl," Bella mumbled. Eva and Fred broke out in laughter, shaking their heads in disbelief.

"No you don't." Eva argued. "Trust me when I say you can do a lot better than Potter." She said. "He's just not boyfriend material. Now Blake Gordon, Hogwarts golden boy, on the other hand… is hot, single _and_ rather sweet." She finished.

"Ooh! Tell me more of this Blake guy." Bella said.

As Bella and Eva discussed the "Hot blokes" of Hogwarts, I decided to climb the stairs to find my dormitory. Each room looked like it could hold up to four girls. And there were five seventh-year dorms. When I finally found mine, I found my stuff ready for me on the bed nearest to the bathrooms.

I put on my Puddlemore united PJ's on (don't judge me, they were a Christmas gift from my dad and I didn't want to hurt his feelings!) and crawled onto my bed. I took out a couple of books and decided to get a head start on some reading for school. I wanted to make sure I was familiar with the material they teach at Hogwarts, just in case it was different in some way.

After about six chapters of Studying Arithmancy, I suddenly shot up out of bed and realized I had forgotten to check up on Ethan. I felt like the worst sister in the entire world! He was probably home sick and searching for me!

I ran down the stairs (completely forgetting about my embarrassing PJs) and searched the common room for any sign of my brother.

"Oh this is right funny it is," Fred said from behind me, laughing his head off and probably staring at my embarrassing Puddlemore pajamas.

"Oh shut up Fred, I know my pajamas are embarrassing but—" I was cut short when I turned to face Fred and I felt like the universe was against me.

"This _is_ pretty embarrassing." Fred said. "Next time we need to coordinate when we want to match, alright love?" He said, laughing in between words.

I was wearing the exact same pair of PJs as Fred Weasley. Oh My God this was not happening. The only difference was that I was wearing pajama shorts, whereas Fred's PJ's were longer pants.

I was about to say something to Fred, when I noticed a group of first years walk in. Then my brother entered behind them, who seemed to be in deep conversation with Hugo, and to my biggest horror, _Benjamin_ _Wood_.

"Hey Nicky!" Ethan said as he ran to greet us, along with Hugo following close behind. "Hey Freddy!"

"Don't you just love your sister and I's pajamas?" Fred said in a fit of laughter.

"Aren't those the pajamas my father gave you last year?" Hugo wondered.

"Yeah, tell Uncle Ron that I'm enjoying them now more than ever," Fred said, wiping tears from his eyes. I let out and irritated sigh, at least the worst was over and Fred was finally calming down.

"Oh this is quite the sight," Wood said, admiring the scene in front of him from a couple feet. He looked from Fred over to me and back again, eyeing us both up and down, a grin breaking out on his face.

"Nicky!" My brother called me back to the real world, as I tried to escape my misery. "This is Benjamin Wood! He just gave me and Hugo a tour and he's really cool! Did you know that his dad coaches my favorite quidditch team?! It's _the_ Oliver Wood's son! Isn't that cool?" He said, talking a thousand miles per hour.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance and glared at wood. "Yeah we met."

"I'm afraid your sister isn't too fond of me," Wood said, giving Ethan a kind smile and then turning towards me to give a slightly evil smirk.

After asking if Ethan was getting along okay, he and Hugo headed up the stairs towards the boy's dorms.

"This is hilarious." Wood burst out as soon as my brother was out of sight. "Bloody hilarious," he hollered with laughter. Fred joined in.

"Oh shut up!" I growled at them. Fred waved his hands up in the air in surrender.

"Alright, alright! I give up. I desperately need a shower," he said, smelling himself. "Night Nicky!" he said with a huge grin. "I'll see you up here later then mate," he directed towards Wood.

The common room was completely cleared out by now, except for Eva and Bella who were sitting across the far side of room, no doubt gossiping about boys.

Not wanting to be alone with Benjamin Wood, I faked a yawn and turned towards him. "Alright well," I said. "Not that this wasn't _fun_ , but I'd rather be sleeping so…" I said, trying to get past him.

"Yeah, nice try Brooks," Wood said, blocking my path as he stepped back in front of me. I backed up to put some space in between us, but he just effectively kept stepping forward, eventually backing me against the wall.

"I was thinking we could have a little _chat_ ," he said sinisterly, placing his hand on the wall near my face.

"Another time yeah?" I said, trying to duck under him, however failing.

Wood, obviously getting annoyed with my squirming, grabbed my arm and yanked me forward against him so that our faces almost touched. "Stop squirming Brooks!" he snapped. "Now. Are you going to try out for quidditch or aren't you?"

"Well I would have if we didn't have a complete nut job as our captain," I managed to get out. I tried to make it sound threatening, but it came out as kind of a shaky squeak. Since well… Wood is kind of intimidating, and annoyingly handsome, and our noses were almost touching.

"You are trying out," Wood growled. "Or I promise I'll—"

"I'm going to stop you right there." I said, cutting Benjamin off and gaining a bit of courage. "I'm going to do what I want," I sassed. "I don't care about your petty threats, and quite frankly I don't care if your team turns to rubbish because I'm not on it."

Wood looked like he had something to say, but I cut him off once more. "I will try out, Wood. But on my own terms." I slipped out of his grip and headed towards Bella and Eva who had obviously been eaves dropping, but were waiting for me none the less. As soon as I reached them, I think Wood had finally registered what I had said, because he came stomping back over to where I was.

"Now wait just a moment Brooks!" he called after me. "What do you mean—"

"Oh sod off, Wood!" Eva called over her shoulder as we quickly headed up stairs. "Give her a rest, ya git!"

We all quickly ran giggling upstairs as we saw the angry look on Wood's face.

As soon as we were in the room, Eva turned and shut the door behind her. "Well. This is our room," she said simply. "It's not much, but at least it's not small."

Eva was right, it certainly wasn't small, and it was definitely meant for four girls to stay in, because it had a pretty sufficient closet space.

Bella took the four poster next to mine, and Eva took the one closest to the door. I stared at the empty bed in between Eva's and Bella's. "Who sleeps there?" I wondered aloud.

"Oh, that's Cassie Richard's bed. She's nice." Eva said simply. I glanced over at the light pink bed spread and fluffy purple pillows that surrounded her bed. She must be a real girly-girl.

I unpacked my silver and blue sheets (colors of my favorite quidditch team, the Madrid Mermaids) and looked over at Bella. She was hanging a huge poster of a pink tiger above her bed.

"Wow that's bright," I said, referring to Bella's hot pink poster.

"Thanks! I know right!" she said happily. I let out a small laugh. Bella was probably the most cheerful girl I had ever met.

"That's pretty," a voice said as I heard the door to our room open and close. A short girl with long curly walked in. She was really pretty, in a unique sort of way, with pale skin and oddly silver colored eyes.

"Hello," she said, greeting Bella and I. Her voice was oddly fairy like, and she kind of reminded me of a fairy godmother. "I'm Cassie,"

"Oh! Hi!" Said Bella, jumping to her feet. "I'm Isabella, but you can call me Bella. And this is Nicky!" she said, pointing to where I sat on my bed.

I waved over at our new roommate. Eva was right, she was nice. But there was just something about her that I couldn't quite put a finger on. Maye she was a crazy vampire? Who knows? I was too tired to figure that out right at the moment.

Eva and Bella stayed up a little longer, but I decided to go to sleep right away. I was going to need it for my first day of classes.

The alarm clock Bella took with her to Hogwarts blared its sharp, irritating screeches at around 6:30 in the morning. This is why I absolutely cannot stand No-Maj tech. It's always so confusing and loud, I can hardly stand it. Bella hit her alarm to stop the noise, and shot up out of bed, smile already on her face.

"Come on, wake up Nicky!" She said shaking my shoulder. I was reluctant to because I'm the kind of person who likes to sleep as much as humanly possible. But I got up anyway, seeing as the rest of the room was already up and moving to start their day. Cassie was already putting on her school uniform, with a bright pink tie to go along with it. Figures.

Eva was pulling up her hot pink hair into a short pony tail, showing off her crazy looking piercings. She was wearing as much black as humanly possible, with black hoop earrings, a black tie, and long black finger nails. The only think that wasn't black was her bright pink lips, which seemed to match her hair.

I pulled on my boring school uniform, with my black robes that had a big Gryffindor seal plastered to the side. I decided to wear my lucky red tie today in hopes that everything went well. I leaned over the mirror and put on some red cherry lip gloss before following the girls downstairs into the great hall for breakfast.

Candles floated above us that lit the room, and the sky reflected a beautiful sunset as we ate. Owls would occasionally fly by and drop off letters to their owners, and sometimes they would crash land in the food.

I helped myself to breakfast, which included a lot of bacon. I was halfway through eating a chocolate muffin when fireball, my pet phoenix, landed on my shoulder and gave a loud squawk, quickly delivering my mail and then flying towards Bella who immediately greeted him.

"Hiya fireball," she cooed as she pet my phoenix.

"Is that bird yours?" James Potter asked. He was sitting beside Bella, who was across from me.

"Yeah you can pet him if you want," I said. I always got this reaction at Ilvermorny during my first couple years. Everyone wants to pet the cool looking fire bird.

Sure enough, James leaned closer to Bella and started petting Fireball as well. Which Bella truly enjoyed, because she gave me a sly wink from across the table. I rolled my eyes but eventually smiled.

I opened up the letter and realized it was from mom. She was just asking how Ethan and I were doing, and then she went on to explain how Dagger, our pet crup, was dreadfully missing us.

I shoved the letter in the pockets of my robe and decided to go to my first class early with Eva. We both had Arithmancy first thing in the morning.

Arithmancy was uneventful and seemingly boring, because I had already been taught the unit we were working on back at Ilvermorny. After that I headed to Herbology, where we learned about Devil's Snare which I found extremely fascinating.

My favorite class of the day however, was defense against the dark arts. DADA was taught by a retired Auror named Glenda Gill, an Irish witch who fought in the second war against Voldemort. Professor Gill was a really cool teacher, giving us lots of hands on practice and spells to master. She was also head of Gryffindor, which meant I was already one of her favorite students.

"Alright class," Professor Gill said as she stopped and turned towards the class, halfway through her discussion on how to conjure a patronus. "I want to you to turn to your partner and discuss your happiest memories," she beamed. "Because that's what memories you'll be using in order to summon a patronus!"

Potter tapped me on the shoulder and smiled. "My happiest memory is when I got my first broom," he said proudly. "Oh! And hey, speaking of brooms, are you thinking of trying out for Gryffindor's seeker this afternoon?" he added quickly.

"Wood put you up to this, didn't he?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

James shrugged. "No. Fred did." He said innocently. He even sent me a drawing of you two on broomsticks with the words 'quidditch mates' underneath." He said with a grin. "I think he really wants you to try out."

I was about to burst out laughing at the sight of the poorly drawn sketch that James pulled out of his pockets, but then I realized we were in class and I wanted to give off a good impression to my teachers.

"Of course I'm trying out dummy." I hissed under my breath. "I can't stand Wood coaching but I can't stand not being able to play quidditch even more."

Potter absolutely beamed at my words, then turned to Wood three rows behind him and gave him the thumbs up.

"Really?" I asked, raising my eyebrow. "Did Fred even draw that picture or was this just some potter-wood scam?"

"Okay so Fred didn't draw it, I did. But Fred was in the same room as me as I drew it so that must count for something." James said.

I gave him a cold glare.

"Okay, maybe not," James said in surrender.

As soon as my last class of the day was over, I ran upstairs and threw on a pair of black shorts and a long red t-shirt. I then grabbed my Silver Moon Glider 6000 (the same broom model that the Madrid Mermaids use), and headed out to the quidditch field.

When I arrived, there was two boys, and two girls already on the field. One boy looked like a third year, and the other one looked like he was in his fifth year. One girl with short black hair looked really young, like she was a second year. And finally, the last girl had long and straight blonde hair with glossy blue nails. She was probably either my year or just a year younger.

"You're late!" Benjamin glared at me with his arms crossed against his chest. I rolled my eyes, knowing that I was 5 minutes early, but I didn't say so.

Five more people showed up after me, to which Wood didn't scold at all. Of course.

After everyone showed up that could have, Wood cleared his throat and addressed the group. "I want ten laps around the field, and then I want you to show me your best moves on your broom. I don't care what you do, as long as you impress me."

Ten laps! Are you kidding me! I wanted to scream but I thought better of it. This was my only chance to play quidditch, so I better play nice until I'm officially on the team.

We started running the laps, and I became thankful that I had long legs, otherwise I would have given out already. Half way through the laps, two of the younger boys and one girl had already given up and gone back to the locker rooms.

"I'm Betty," the girl with the straight blonde hair said as she quickened her pace to match mine. I glanced over in her direction and gave her a quick nod, not wanting to wreck my pace or become out of breath. But she kept talking.

"I'm pretty sure I've already got this in the bag," she said smugly. And I almost missed a step. What did that chick just say?

"I mean, for one thing, I know that Ben has a thing for blondes." She said with a pitying look. "And besides, your legs are way too scrawny. They look like they'd break on a broom," She laughed nastily.

If I was around this chick for much longer, I think I might have gone for her throat. But instead I chose the option to quicken my pace and to sprint the final lap in order to get away from her.

I looked back behind me and gave her a smile as her irritated figure faded away the farther I got.

After everyone had finished running their laps, or at least the ones that did finish, the remaining witches and wizards sat on the bleachers and watched as a single person would attempt to catch the snitch.

This really young second year girl was really talented, and knew how to do all kinds of cute rolls and dives. Weirdly enough, she was the most talented person I had seen so far. This was probably because the two boys who went before her were total duds, and had crashed their brooms more than twenty times before they finally caught the snitch.

Soon enough, it was the obnoxious blonde's turn. She pulled up her white tennis skirt up her waist and mounted on her broom with a seductive wink towards Wood. My blood practically boiled over. This was quidditch try outs for crying out loud! Not America's next top model!

The girl named Betty wasn't that impressive however. She just did a lot of basic turns and whirls. But she did know how to ride a broom.

After about a couple minutes, she got lucky and the snitch practically flew towards her as she quickly grabbed it and then safely landed her broom.

I rolled my eyes and headed towards my broom, passing her on the way.

"I hope you choke!" she said in a sweet voice as I passed by. How charming. I wanted to trip her, but I knew that Wood would frown upon tripping other players so I did my best to hold it in as I grabbed my broom and took to the skies.

Flying was as easy as breathing to me, as I took to the skies, giving it everything I got. I performed a series of sharp turns and barrel rolls across the pitch, not caring who was watching or what I was doing. I did six different dives in a row without even breaking a sweat. And when it came time to catch the snitch, I jumped off my broom and into the air, my fingers closing around the golden object. As I summersaulted into the air, I summoned my broom and quickly mounted on it once again, right before I landed perfectly on my feet. I pulled my broom from out in front of me and handed the snitch to a shocked looking Benjamin Wood, who had tried to look calm and indifferent, but failed.

"Tryouts are over," Ben said slowly. "We already found our seeker."

I walked over to where James was watching the game, as he held both hands up in the air. I jumped up and gave him ten, our hands slapping together.

"Welcome to the team Nicky!" he said, giving me a pat on the back.

Adrenaline was slowly leaving my system, and I was the happiest I'd been all year. This season of quidditch was going to be awesome.

"I'm so excited!" I told James, my face absolutely glowing, although I'm pretty sure that was just from sweating.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up," James said suddenly. "Wood's coming by here and he looks a bit snarly."

Sure enough, I turned around and saw wood stomping towards me, glaring irritably. He pulled me along as he passed Potter and said, "Locker rooms. NOW."

I gave James a pleading look as Wood pulled me along with him towards the Gryffindor locker rooms. James just shrugged and mouthed "Good luck".

I hate my friends.

 **Thank you CeiaReis for last chapter's review! :)**


	5. The awkward locker room encounter

I was expecting Benjamin to yell at me. For _what_ I had no idea. I tried out, just as he said I should. And I made the team, like he wanted. But for whatever crazy thing he was mad at me for, I definitely expected him to yell. Maybe even scream.

I did not however, expect him to grab my arm, turn me around, and _kiss_ me. Which is what he in fact did.

As soon as we entered the locker rooms, Wood pulled me towards him, and soon I was face to face with my new quidditch captain. Except, he didn't look mad. He just wore his usual smirk as he studied my face, his blue eyes full of want.

"You're a bloody brilliant quidditch player," he said before grabbing a handful of my hair, pulling me towards his face, and kissing me.

And a few moments later, I realized I was kissing back. And suddenly Wood had pushed me up against the lockers. His hands had traveled down to my hips, and my hands were in his hair.

His hand grabbed my chin and then his other hand started playing with my hair. I started giggling, which ultimately made him smile back and kiss me harder.

And that's when I realized I was making out with my quidditch captain. Who also happened to be Fred's best friend. And just happens to be the son of a world famous quidditch player. But most importantly, I realized I was kissing Benjamin Wood! The boy I absolutely cannot stand!

I quickly pulled out of the kiss, both of us gasping for air, as I lifted my head up and glared at him.

"This didn't happen," I said, but it sounded more like an order.

"Okay," Ben nodded. "This didn't happen," he said. "But when I saw you preform the fire tail faint from 05' from the quidditch world cup I couldn't control myself—"

Ben quickly stopped himself mid-sentence after I gave him a harsh glare.

"Anyways…" he said, fixing his shirt that had gotten a little wrinkled. God only knows what mine looked like right about then.

"Practice is at 5:30. If you're late, you run twenty laps," he said, strictly. "If you sass me, you run twenty laps," he said, giving me a long stare. "And if you disobey orders—"

"I run twenty laps?" I asked.

"Smart girl," he smirked. I was so tired of rolling my eyes that I decided not to this time. We locked eyes for a minute, and that's when I decided I had to get out of there. So I quickly headed out the locker room door and went to meet James on the field.

James was waiting for me, and holding my gym bag and broom stick in his hands.

"How'd it go?" he asked, and my mind instantly wandered to the heated make out session I just had with Wood.

"Uhhhh…." I trailed on, trying not to think about how good of a kisser he was. "Boring actually." I decided to say.

"He didn't yell at you?" Potter asked.

I shook my head. There definitely wasn't yelling…

"Nope." I said quickly. "He just told me to wake up at an inhumane time in the morning, and if I didn't play by the rules he swore he would make me run like a billion laps around the track or something,"

Potter let out a loud laugh. "Yeah that sounds like him alright," he said, buying my story. Which was almost a hundred percent true anyway. I just happen to leave out the part were Wood kissed me. But that wasn't really important.

"Well I'm starving," James said. "You want to go to the kitchens to grab something to eat?"

"Please!" I said. I had really worked up an appetite playing quidditch.

The next day was kind of weird. I started the day off with a positive attitude, because I knew that the first quidditch practice didn't start for about two days. But after that, my day started going downhill.

It all started at breakfast. I sat between Fred and Potter, and Eva and Bella sat across from me. Also, so did Benjamin.

"Can I have a day off from practice Ben?" Fred asked, his mouth full of food and a wide grin plastered on his face. "I think I'm going to be sick that day,"

"If you can tell me what day practice actually starts," Wood said, "I'll let you off the hook."

"Tomorrow?" Fred guessed. Ben put his fork down and sighed.

"Not even close." He said desperately.

"Oh come on!" I said to a disappointed Fred. "It's my first practice!" I said teasingly. "You have to be there!" I pleaded.

"Anything for you Nicky," Fred said, throwing an arm around my shoulder. "Besides," he said, taking a bite of bacon. "If I didn't, Ben here would make me run a couple hundred laps."

Everyone at the table laughed, including me. And while everyone was laughing, I could have sworn I felt Ben throw a heated stare my way. Our eyes met, and he studied my face a bit longer before my friends decided to get ready for class. I watched as he got up from the table and started walking to his next class with James.

"He kept glancing over at you all throughout breakfast," Eva said to me as we walked our usual route to Arithmancy. "What did you do during tryouts yesterday?"

"Nothing." I lied. "I simply made the team and that's it," I said, shrugging it off.

"Oh." Eva said. "Then he's probably having one of those moods,"

"Maybe it's cuz he can't practice quidditch yet and it's slowly killing him?" I offered.

Eva's laughter seemed to agree with me.

And throughout the rest of the day, Wood and I didn't make any more awkward eye contact. And we both seemed to keep our distance, which was great. My day was going alright except for the large sum of homework I would have to do in Arithmancy, however I wasn't in a bad mood.

Not until Herbology that is.

I absolutely love herbology, almost as much as I love Wizarding School. And our professor, Mr. Longbottom, is really cool. Last week he did this really cool hands-on lesson about devil's snare. It was really fun because we got to take turns going up in front of the class and try to figure out how to get out of the plant's grip.

And we always have the coolest projects and assignments to do. I think Professor Longbottom just really enjoys teaching us.

Except, today I wanted to rip out my hair in herbology, because of the lesson that our professor had prepared for us. We were supposed to be potting these giggly egg plants (Purple flowers that would laugh at you). But since there wasn't enough for every witch or wizard to plant one, Professor Longbottom decided it was a good idea to assign us partners.

And guess who I was assigned to?

If you guessed that super annoying witch from quidditch try-outs, then congratulations, because that's who I was stuck with.

Becky Fletcher. The most annoying witch on the face of the earth. And I had to plant some stupid flower with her!

"I'm not really sure why you don't wear that much makeup," Becky had said, twenty minutes into our lesson of planting the giggly egg plants. Everyone around us was chatting with their partner, and taking turns scooping dirt. My partner however, looked at me with disgust when I asked if she wanted to help plant the flower. And the only thing she'd said to me so far was to complain about how I don't were that much makeup?

"I mean, obviously you need to." She said, after I had just finished scooping up a new batch of dirt. I chose to ignore her insults, because I didn't exactly fancy a detention right about then.

"And I still don't understand how your untalented arse made the quidditch team," Becky said as an afterthought.

"It's probably because she's talented. Unlike you." A quiet voice said from beside us. I turned to look at who had suddenly defended me. It was my roommate, Cassie Richard, who was working alongside a Hufflepuff boy.

Unfortunately, Becky Fletcher had heard Cassie as well, and her ears were starting to turn red with anger.

"Oh shut up you little twit! Everyone knows your mother is half-"

Half what, I never got to find out, because the Hufflepuff boy that was working beside Cassie, accidentally chucked his dirt across the table, covering Becky Fletcher in brown sludge.

"EEEK!" Becky practically screamed, brushing her long blonde hair with her hands in a fit of fury, drying to get any excess dirt out. "Get this disgusting poison off me! I think I may actually die!" She squealed for extra dramatics.

It was kind of funny to watch her over react, but honestly I kind of pitied the girl. She obviously had never touched dirt before in her life, and that's kind of sad actually.

"Ms. Fletcher," Professor Longbottom sighed. "It's only dirt. You can go back to your dorms to change and freshen up if you wish, but it's really not that big of a deal."

"Whatever!" she snapped. As she headed out the doors of the green house, she gave me a long stare filled with pure hatred. Although I'm not exactly sure why, since I hadn't said two words to her throughout this entire class. Odd.

"Hey thanks," I said, turning towards Cassie. "She was being so annoying,"

"No problem," Cassie said. "She's always been this way actually." She said sighing, a bit of sadness in her eyes. "She can't stand anyone that threatens her queen bee status at Hogwarts,"

"Yeah, I kind of figured," I said, half laughing.

"We used to be friends actually," Cassie said. "Until Grant Holding from Ravenclaw said he fancied me." She said with a long sigh. "She was so jealous, that she shared my biggest personal secret with every bloke at Hogwarts, including Grant."

"What happened?" I asked. "That's awful! Did Grant and you still go out?"

"No." Cassie said. "I think he was freaked out ever since he found out I was one-fourth Vampire."

Ok now I felt bad for joking about that earlier.

"I don't see why that's a reason he should be freaking out for," I said honestly. "It's not like you're running around biting peoples necks,"

"Yeah I don't know," she shrugged. "People just can't really accept the fact that I'm different I guess,"

That afternoon I ate lunch with Cassie. Not because I pitied her, but because we got to talking in Herbology, and I found out that she liked the Madrid Mermaids too. Plus, we talked more today than we did in the dorms, mostly because she likes to sleep in as much as possible, and sometimes skips breakfast.

Cassie was pretty cool once I got to know her. She even opened up to me and admitted that she had a crush on that Hufflepuff boy that was working with her in Herbology.

I had to admit that I was getting along fine with pretty much everyone. And I wasn't even the slightest bit homesick. Although I was pretty sure I had Ethan to thank for that, since I constantly saw him after classes, playing chess in the common room with Hugo.

Maybe this Hogwarts transfer wasn't so bad after all.

"What are you doing this winter break?" Eva said excitedly, pulling me from my thoughts and day dreams. I blinked twice before realizing I had no idea what she said.

"Huh?" I grunted. Looking around and realizing I must have fallen asleep at a table in the library.

"I said what are you doing this winter break Nicky!" she said a little less cheerfully, probably a little annoyed that I was half asleep and had started to drool on my Arithmancy homework that I had only just started.

"Probably just staying at home with my newly rekindled family," I said sluggishly, not really looking forward to how awkward that would be.

"How do you feel about going to a weird sister's concert?" She nearly screamed, smacking a flyer down onto the desk, effectively covering my homework.

"WHAT!" I yelled loudly. Eva is usually a mellow chick, and her voice was naturally lower. But now I totally understood why she was squealing and acting like a teenage girl. Because I felt like screaming too. "MERLIN THAT'S AWESOME!" I yelled.

Let's just say that Eva and I were promptly kicked out of the library after that rather loud outburst.

So we decided to discuss our plans for the concert in the common room instead.

"We should totally plan our outfits," I said excitedly. "Let's go shopping as soon as winter break comes," I said cheerfully.

"I can't," Eva frowned. "My family is spending Christmas in Italy for the fourth year in a row. I can't stand it, but there's no other option. I'll just have to meet you at the concert." She said sadly.

"Why don't you just spend Christmas with our family!" I suggested happily. "That way we can get shopping done! And my family is cool with anything. They'd love to have you!"

"Are you sure that's not too much?" Eva asked, but she looked excited nonetheless.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. They'll be glad I'm not bringing home a boyfriend anyway." I laughed.

"Who said something about a boyfriend?" Fred asked as he slid onto the couch next to me. "Is there something I should know about Nicky? Did we break up?" He asked teasingly.

I put my hand to my heart and fake swooned. "Oh good heavens no! No one could ever take your place Weasley dearest," I said in fakely sweet tone.

The three of us were still laughing when Wood came over. "Oi!" he called out, heading his way over to the couch.

"Please let this not be quidditch related," prayed Eva.

"Simmons, Brooks, and Weasley," Wood called with a smug look on his face. "Just the three people I was looking for!"

Huh. It didn't occur to me until now that Eva's last name was Simmons. Weird.

"What do you want Benjie my boy?" Fred asked in a fake Scottish accent.

"Okay first of all," he said, glaring at Weasley. "Don't ever do that again." He sighed. "Ever. And second of all, don't ever call me Benjie again unless you fancy running a couple of extra laps at practice."

"Which is tomorrow by the way," he said, interrupting himself. "Practice that is. So don't be late."

"No." Eva said, pretty much in denial. "NO nononononono NO NO!" She practically screamed desperately. "I still have like three more days to sleep in!" She whined.

"I need my beauty sleep mate," Fred said, and even though he was joking, he still sounded a little disturbed.

"Well McGonagall said that we have to move things along to start the season a little early." He said, with a little bit of pity in his voice. Although he seemed perfectly happy if you ask me. "And speaking of early," Wood added, "I'll see you all on the pitch first thing tomorrow!"

"Ugggggg." Eva groaned. "You've got to be kidding me,"

"Right then," Wood said awkwardly, as Fred and Eva were getting up to leave. "Goodnight," He told me. Then left.

Only right then did it hit me that I had to get up at freaking five thirty in the morning.

Why did I even try out in the first place?


End file.
